What's in a name? Named after the astronomer and mathematician Nicolaus Copernicus.

Say what? Copernicium is pronounced as kogh-per-NEE-see-em.

History and Uses:

Copernicium was first produced by Peter Armbruster, Gottfried Münzenber and their team working at the Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung in Darmstadt, Germany on February 9, 1996. They bombarded atoms of lead with ions of zinc with a device known as a linear accelerator. This produced atoms of copernicium-277, an isotope with a half-life of about 0.24 milliseconds (0.00024 seconds).

Since only a few atoms of copernicium have ever been produced, it currently has no uses outside of basic scientific research.

Originally, the symbol Cp was recommended for Copernicium. That symbol was rejected because Cp had previously been used for the element lutetium which, prior to 1949, had cassiopeium as an alternative allowed name. Please see this file for additional details.